Union Perspectives

The unintended consequences from the loss of unions here and worldwide--is that the trade unions trained its workers and the workers were getting a living wage healthcare, and a pension--will be felt by all of us. Unions usually trained its members for four to five years and then they were journeymen, who could expect good wages and continued training as needed. At the end of their working careers, workers, who were usually between the ages 52 and 55, had a living-wage pension to live on--now this is threatened on both fronts--union pensions and Social Security. When workers turned 62, they could receive Social Security and Medicare, which they paid into. They would not need much government assistance, in fact, they could be contributors to the social infrastructure as volunteers. But this is in an ideal world. We live in a GOP-anti-union world where the money people made it their dream to destroy the unions, and the union members stood by and allowed it to happen. The state-by-sta...

With the Trump election, we here in the U.S. must brace ourselves for privatization of our security and government services. Also, there will be a huge push in union busting activities and we will see more states pushing right-to-work laws, which will smash unions by reducing union dues. We are seeing this in Australia, Britain, Greece, and Israel. These trends are now driving violations of labor laws, which is responsible for underpaying workers, and now Israel has the highest poverty level among developed nations, and it has the highest level of inequality among children. Privatization is the fastest path to the bottom of the economic ladder. The model set by President Ronald Reagan and Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who both followed the hardline economist and privatization nutcase Milton Friedman, who has been one of the ones who have widened the inequality gap here in the U.S. and the world over. With the Trump election, we will see privatization and wars on ster...

Workers engaged in the “Gig” job should study the playbook of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as the Wobblies. They fought for free speech and one big worldwide union with a cooperative common wealth, which would be free of class and national distinction. The Wobblies were founded in 1905 and are still around today. The Gig workers should consider joining the IWW since most of the Wobblies were part-time workers and travelled the country looking for work. The 9-to-5 jobs that a worker could retire from are just about gone. Four out of 10 Americans now make a living through nontraditional work schedules. There are a large group of freelance, contract, part time, temporary, virtual shared, and patched-together work. All that the workers fought for since the 1880s and the 21st century have been lost and we are now back to a kind of scavenger economy and existence. Forbes magazine predicted that by 2020, 50 percent of the American labor force will work at least p...

The Democratic Party lost from the top down. The Party is decimated and everyone who was a part of the Party’s demise should be fired or replaced. Labor should now understand that no one person or party is going to ride in on a white horse and make them whole again. Labor will have to do it themselves with good, strong leadership that comes from the ranks and is supported by the workers not just because it is their turn to get the job. Labor must now start to educate the workers on the good of unions. They must organize, organize, organize, and rebuild their membership, but in order to have jobs for the workers. Unions must work to get Project Labor Agreement on school boards, city and all prevailing wage jobs for any work with government money, which falls under the Davis-Bacon Act. This means that there must be union advocates at the meetings when jobs are put out to bid. If the rules are followed, there is no reason that union shops should not get the work. It just takes work fro...

The boiling pot of discontent, fear and confusion is slashing over the lid fueled by the election, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock protests, wage inequality, and a lot of these things are the residue of Occupy Wall Street, which did not solve much, but did start the pot boiling. Most of these concerns are not just felt here in the U.S., but are concerns for the world over. Then there is the wars, which are never ending and propagate the immigrant and refugee onslaught of the world causing more discontent wherever they go. Most of this is the result of greed by the world’s 1 percent, also known as the 1/10th percent, which is destroying the democracies of the world. So, what happens when the pot boils over? Does it extinguish the fire? Or will the world’s oligarchies try to slam a lid on the pot, and if they try the pot will blow up. We already are seeing terrorists’ activities the world over. Just how long will it be until terrorism is here in the U.S. as an everyday event? The s...

When the 2016 election is over, what type of government will we have here in the U.S.? Will our so-called democracy be turned into an anarchy or are we already an aristocracy that has turned into an oligarchy? If so, what should be done and by whom? History has shown that there are six types of government of which there are three considered good ones and three considered bad ones. The good ones are principality, aristocracy and the democracy. Individually, none of these will last as the principality can easily become tyranny, an aristocracy can become an oligarchy, and a democracy can turn into an anarchy. There is no remedy capable of preventing one of the good governments from slipping into its contrary because of the similarity that exists in this case between the virtue and the vice--and human nature of some individuals. Today, the U.S. stands at a crossroad. Will we fail like other governments before us or will we be able to rise above the fray--or is it too late? As more and ...

Worried about your future and that of your children? Get involved. The future is for the young and if the young don’t step up and take control, the future won’t be worth living. Young people in their 20s and 30s should be the people running for office in local boards, such as water, fire, utilities, school and city and county office. If they were elected to county board of supervisors or city councils, they appoint planning commissioners, which regulates economic, infrastructure and construction development within the limits of the county or city jurisdiction.  Young people who are in junior college should run for elementary through high school boards. I think they could bring a lot to the table on what is needed in education today. Even if they are not elected, they could attend the school board meetings and speak up, especially during election forums with their fresh ideas and experience. If they decide to run for office, they could ask for money on social media to fund their run fo...